TWO OUT OF THREE AIN'T? by George on the Outer

Well that was the JLT pre-season practice series and the final one for Melbourne was away against a side that lost in the first round of the 2016 finals to the ultimate premiers. Both clubs took the field in this game with probably their best available sides so we expected what should have been and was a close tussle.

The thing that was noticeable was that the game was treated as a true practice match with both coaches trying different options, but not giving too much away.  

Melbourne under Simon Goodwin went into the game with the two ruck option again but did it work?  We really don't know because although Jake Spencer finished with three goals, he also had a paltry seven possessions and his hit-outs were against WCE’s third and fourth choice ruckmen in Vardy and Petrie.  

Melbourne also played a match attempting to simulate a 22 man team set up as close as possible which left Jack Trengove stranded on the boundary line. Has he recovered from his tragic injury run - again,  we now simply don’t know yet but the team was left one man short in the Perth heat.

For almost three quarters, the game itself was almost goal for goal with some momentary lapses allowing the Eagles a margin of less than a couple goals until a run of goals in the final term allowed the Eagles to nudge out to a winning margin. Even then, with ten minutes to go, the Demons could have been within a kick, save for some easy misses in front of goal from Jesse Hogan and Sam Weideman.  The result could have been different, but we won’t know.

The unfortunate observation was the lack of finishing skill into the forward line. At one point, eight West Coast goals in succession had come came from Melbourne turnovers into the forward areas. The quick counter attack saw the defenders with simply no chance, and both LeCras and Kennedy took advantage as they were left either one on one or on their own in a replica of Pagans paddock.  No defender in the league could defend against that.  

We have to give Dom Tyson some leeway since it was his first hit-out for a long time, but some of his field kicking was way way below par.  Likewise, Jack Watts needed to show more than what he produced, particularly with his defensive efforts.  For someone with a selection cloud over himself, it was necessary to show the same level of intensity that Clayton Oliver, Tomas Bugg, Jayden Hunt, Nathan Jones and Max Gawn were displaying.  Does he have it in himself to get to the level to play round one - we still don’t know.

Oliver played an absolute blinder again. His vision in tight situations, and his ability to get the ball when it seems impossible, are rapidly approaching elite level. Thirty-one touches including 13 contested is well up there with the best, and yet the Coach had him off the field for long periods, probably because in his case - we do know about his capabilities yet.

Others needed to be evaluated and were given the chance. James Harmes, ANB, Weideman and Colin Garland are at the fringe area of selection, and while the latter is a work in progress in need of senior game time, the others only showed enough to confirm their fringe status.  Will we see much of them during the season - we don’t know as they aren’t knocking the door down, and we still have the likes of Jeff Garlett, Dean Kent, Nev Jetta and eventually VDB as choices before them. 

The match showed that the Demons still have a way to go. We should have known that the inconsistency of youth would show a drop-off of what we now expect from Christian Petracca and even Jack Viney. They still played well, but they just weren’t there at times.  

Finally, let's reflect that despite this series being a training run for both sides, the team has beaten last year's premier on its own home turf,  flogged a bottom for side that for some reason it usually struggles with and has taken it right up to another finalist. We don’t know if that means anything or nothing at all but for years we have been saying "we want to be competitive" and "we want to challenge for finals and better". In order to do this, we have to win comprehensively when expected and to be truly in the game against the better sides. That we have done, and if it translates into the season proper, then finals will beckon.  We still don’t know what we can take away, but two out of three ain’t bad. Isn't it?

P.S: Will the AFL please stop using W.A. based umpires in games in WA? They need to be exposed to how the rules are applied in the rest of the country and not just in Domain Stadium.
 
Melbourne 0.2.2.14 0.6.3.39 0.8.5.53 1.9.7.70

West Coast 0.3.5.23  0.7.5.47 0.12.8.80 0.14.11.95

Supergoals

Melbourne Jayden Hunt

West Coast Nil 

Goals 

Melbourne Spencer 3 Hogan 2 Brayshaw Jones Salem Viney 

West Coast Kennedy 5 Darling LeCras Vardy 2 Gaff Hill Priddis

Best 

Melbourne Oliver Oliver and Oliver Hunt Lewis Bugg Salem 

West Coast Mitchell Masten Gaff Vardy Kennedy Wellingham LeCras

Injuries

Melbourne Nil  

West Coast Nil

Reports

Melbourne Nil

West Coast Nil

Umpires Haussen Dalgleish Kamolins Adams

Official crowd 5,337 at Domain Stadium

Fair comments George.  We got close against a very good side when many of players put in sub standard performances.

Hogan's miss at a potentially match changing moment was a shocker.

Oscar and Weid showed glimpses but both clearly need more experience and more hardness. It may take another season, particularly from Weid, before we see his full potential.

I liked Bugge's game - he maybe a surprise this year.

Garlett cops some whacks on this site but his absence was a glaring hole.

Turnovers were really disappointing and unless we tidy up in this area the Saints will give us a [censored] at Etihad.

I thought the umpiring was ordinary. The OOB rule confuses me. Are the umpires actually trying to mind read and judge "intent"?

I rate our JLT season 6 out of 10.  This isn't necessarily based on Wins/Losses but more on who and how we played.

We beat the reigning premiers who, like us were rusty.  We played well but gave them some easy chances to get back in the game with 'junk time' goals.  Last night they annihilated NM after an ordinary first half.  WBD have improved out of sight since JLT 1, MFC less so, if at all.

We beat Carlton in their first, rusty runout but didn't put them to the sword by letting them get some easy goals. (The Saints smashed them by keeping the pressure up the following week and Freo beat them convincingly last night).  So not much to crow about from JLT 2.

In JLT 3 we stayed in the game despite adverse weather conditions and our terrible turnovers.  Our fwds and mids couldn't lock the ball in our fwd line so totally exposed our zone defence. Even the wise and mighty Jordan Lewis couldn't get the team to stem the tide.

A discouraging hint to the players mindset going into JLT 3 was in hunt's post game interview where he said something like ... the loss was disappointing as the guys were on a high after the two wins.  I'm not sure we have learnt the lesson of 'not drinking own bathwater'.  Did they take it easy vs WCE?

So some good signs and some bad signs.  For mine there is still work to be done on our game plan, finding a Plan B when zone defence isn't working, and fwd/mid defensive pressure.  While I welcome back Garlett for his speed and crumbing abilities we desperately need Kent for his 'pressure acts'.

Edited March 11, 20178 yr by Lucifer's Hero

2 hours ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

The OOB rule confuses me. Are the umpires actually trying to mind read and judge "intent"?

Yes. For my next trick........

2 hours ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

Fair comments George.  We got close against a very good side when many of players put in sub standard performances.

Hogan's miss at a potentially match changing moment was a shocker.

Oscar and Weid showed glimpses but both clearly need more experience and more hardness. It may take another season, particularly from Weid, before we see his full potential.

I liked Bugge's game - he maybe a surprise this year.

Garlett cops some whacks on this site but his absence was a glaring hole.

Turnovers were really disappointing and unless we tidy up in this area the Saints will give us a [censored] at Etihad.

I thought the umpiring was ordinary. The OOB rule confuses me. Are the umpires actually trying to mind read and judge "intent"?

The OOB rule confuses me as well BBO......

like this:

Best 

Melbourne Oliver Oliver and Oliver Hunt Lewis Bugg Salem

but no way for mine salem was in the best. unsighted far too often.

i'd give our preseason a 6/10 too. dogs didn't look bothered, blues look garbage, and meth coke are looking pretty good, particularly through the midfield, and chopped us to shreds as a result.

we need our young mids like brayshaw and stretch to both get the ball more (10 possessions to brayshaw is a very poor return; although why he seemed to be stationed exclusively across half-forward i have no idea) and do more with it when they have it.

2 hours ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

I rate our JLT season 6 out of 10.  This isn't necessarily based on Wins/Losses but more on who and how we played.

We beat the reigning premiers who, like us were rusty.  We played well but gave them some easy chances to get back in the game with 'junk time' goals.  Last night they annihilated NM after an ordinary first half.  WBD have improved out of sight since JLT 1, MFC less so, if at all.

We beat Carlton in their first, rusty runout but didn't put them to the sword by letting them get some easy goals. (The Saints smashed them by keeping the pressure up the following week and Freo beat them convincingly last night).  So not much to crow about from JLT 2.

In JLT 3 we stayed in the game despite adverse weather conditions and our terrible turnovers.  Our fwds and mids couldn't lock the ball in our fwd line so totally exposed our zone defence. Even the wise and mighty Jordan Lewis couldn't get the team to stem the tide.

A discouraging hint to the players mindset going into JLT 3 was in hunt's post game interview where he said something like ... the loss was disappointing as the guys were on a high after the two wins.  I'm not sure we have learnt the lesson of 'not drinking own bathwater'.  Did they take it easy vs WCE?

So some good signs and some bad signs.  For mine there is still work to be done on our game plan, finding a Plan B when zone defence isn't working, and fwd/mid defensive pressure.  While I welcome back Garlett for his speed and crumbing abilities we desperately need Kent for his 'pressure acts'.

I'm surprised you haven't given our JLT season a 1 out of 10, going by your comments above.  Both our wins are put down to the opposition being 'rusty', while you give the Saints credit for a huge win over Carlton even though they were resting most of their star players, who all played us the week before.  I wonder, had we lost in the first game and won our final 2, if your views would be different.  What I don't like is the fact that you've just glossed over some good football, some clear improvement from the players and a gameplan that, when executed properly, will tear teams apart.  Instead, everyone is 'rusty' and we can take no credit for the wins we had.  Pretty short sighted view of the last month in my opinion.

41 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

I'm surprised you haven't given our JLT season a 1 out of 10, going by your comments above.  Both our wins are put down to the opposition being 'rusty', while you give the Saints credit for a huge win over Carlton even though they were resting most of their star players, who all played us the week before.  I wonder, had we lost in the first game and won our final 2, if your views would be different.  What I don't like is the fact that you've just glossed over some good football, some clear improvement from the players and a gameplan that, when executed properly, will tear teams apart.  Instead, everyone is 'rusty' and we can take no credit for the wins we had.  Pretty short sighted view of the last month in my opinion.

I said my rating was not based on the Wins/Loss.

The good things you mention, the bold text, (and other good things I thought of) are implied in the 6 out of 10. Not enough good things to rate the JLT higher in my book.  My comments were explaining why the rating wasn't higher, rather than explaining the 6 out of 10.

I guess you rate it higher than 6 out of 10, which is fine.  Different views, not better not worse, just different. 

Edited March 11, 20178 yr by Lucifer's Hero

1 minute ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

I said my rating was not based on the Wins/Loss.

The good things you mention, the bold text, (and others) are implied in the 6 out of 10 rating. Not enough good things to rate the JLT higher in my book.  But if you rate it higher that's cool. 

So if you take the wins out of it, and look at what I bolded, I could ask the question - what more do you want from a side in some practice games?  It's nothing but a dress rehearsal, so how can you score it?  If we can see a clear game plan, improvement in the players and a (generally) fit list, what else should we be expecting if we aren't worried about the score line?  

If we want to look purely outside of wins/losses, then we played very well against the reigning premiers, look terrific against a bottom 4 side (as we should) and were in the game until the end against a Top 4 side in Perth.  To me, that shows improvement across the board, even if we still need to iron out some kinks, especially in our game plan.  But that's really all you can ask for in March.

We played Carlton when they had Simpson, Gibbs, Murphy, Docherty, Kreuzer, Casboult.

None of these senior players lined up against the Saints.  It's silly to reference the Saints game as a comparison.

Cripps played against St Kilda, but unsurprisingly wasn't dominant coming off a poor preseason due to missing months with a back injury. 

1 hour ago, ProDee said:

We played Carlton when they had Simpson, Gibbs, Murphy, Docherty, Kreuzer, Casboult.

None of these senior players lined up against the Saints.  It's silly to reference the Saints game as a comparison.

Cripps played against St Kilda, but unsurprisingly wasn't dominant coming off a poor preseason due to missing months with a back injury. 

Cripps only played a half of that game too. They put him on ice at half time and that's when St Kilda really put them to the sword.

Agree that puts the 92 point thrashing into some context. 

How they fare against the swans today will be much better a comparison to how we went on Thursday and might provide a gauge on the teams for Rd 1

Poor skills and turnovers killed us last year, and looks like being our biggest issue again this year.

Hopefully we can have less of them. Looking at the fixture, we should have 12-15 wins. The WCE game was slightly deflating, and now the Saints game scares the **** out of me.

The worst part is that you can tell how Melb will play for the day in the first 10 minutes .. and it stays that way for the whole game. Watching these games are torture, just hoping they will turn it around, but it never happens.

I agree with those who say that we couldn't have played much worse than we did and yet we were still in the game 20 minutes into the last when we were down by 11 points (which could easily have been 6 if Hogan had kicked truly).

True, we weren't clean with our disposal and let them out of defence easily but they were the home side and much closer to full strength than we were.

I also noticed that there were a couple of patches in the second half when we dominated general play but struggled to convert and they killed us up forward when the ball hit the ground. We missed the likes of Garlett and Kent in attack; likewise we could have done with Jetta, Hibberd and Frost in defence. During the patches of play I mentioned, they got the rub of the green with the loose balls out of packs and the bounce finding their players. It doesn't always happen like that.

Most of the problems highlighted in this thread are fixable by including some different personnel and changing up the tactics, especially with the zones. Also, we don't often play on a ground like Domain that suited the Eagles' style so well.